It's close to quitting time at Google. Some employees unwind with a beach volleyball game, others whiz off the Mountain View campus on motorized skateboards, and a few are meditating in the Zen garden.

But for Google mapping software engineer Ben Lindahl, his other job is just starting - tutoring Google janitors, who show up an hour before their night shifts start for English lessons.

Once a week, Google employees meet with Google janitors in a new vocational education program designed to eliminate the main barrier for most would-be students and volunteers: not enough time.

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"They make it hard to say no," Lindahl said. "There's no time or transportation barrier. And often you're matched with a janitor who works in your Google building."

The California nonprofit Building Skills Partnership has been bringing ESL and job skills classes to Silicon Valley tech companies for nearly a decade, but last year Google added a twist: using its own workers as the teachers. Such outside-the-box thinking led the national Migration Policy Institute to honor Building Skills Partnership this year with one of its four annual $50,000 innovation awards.

There are approximately 50 Google janitors matched with Google staffers. Over the months, the pairs bond with each other. One student brings her teacher homemade tamales. Others video-conference their lessons when the Google worker travels on business.

More than words

"We do have lesson books, but a lot of what we do is talk for an hour in English and help them with things they encounter in life, like how to sell a car on Craigslist, how to talk to the immigration office or help their kids with their homework," said tutor Blair Schwab, who works in the Google sales department.

At a recent tutoring session, janitor Oscar Gomez tried to find the word in English to tell Schwab about his hometown Oaxacan delicacy, chapulines.

"Chapulines? Chapulines? It's small, on the mountains. Like this," he said, making a jumping motion with his hands.

Schwab, who taught English in Ecuador before coming to Google, asked a few more questions until she understood he meant toasted grasshoppers.

At the other end of the table, Obdulia Hernandez, who has been cleaning Google offices for six years, asked Google employee Ryan Terribilini if she had expressed her sympathies correctly to a newly divorced friend, when she had said, "I don't like to hear that."

Terribilini taught her how to say, "I'm sorry to hear that."

Peter Harrison, a technical program manager for Google Fiber (ultra-high-speed Internet access), wanted to volunteer because he's been in the same situation as some of the janitors.

"I know what it's like to be isolated in a country where you don't speak the language," said Harrison, who grew up in Jamaica, has lived in seven countries and speaks four languages.

In the year Maribel Perez has been studying with him, she has learned how to communicate with her daughter's school principal and how to help her husband talk to his customers about trimming and removing trees.

"Peter is the best teacher," she said. "He brings me a lot of good books, and tells me don't worry so much about grammar, just talk."

Company time

American Building Maintenance, one of two contracted janitorial companies at Google, allows janitors to use half an hour of work time for tutoring. One incentive for janitors to improve their English is that they can be transferred to a day shift, which requires more English skills because there is more interaction with office workers, said Jason Bradley, Google's on-site manager for janitorial services.

Lindahl recently helped his tutee learn how to make conversation at the doctor's office, by getting up and singing the children's song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes."

"I don't care if I make a fool of myself," he said. "It's all worth it when she comes back the following week and tells me she had success talking to the doctor."